Curated OER
American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
Students research how early colonists lived. They investigate late 17th century colonist's lives from Massachusetts and Delaware. Using their research, students write historical fiction in the form of friendly letters between the two...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
How Do We Know about Colonial Life?
Young history sleuths examine an inventory of the belongings of a Virginia colonist and use deductive reasoning to determine what the document reveals about colonial life. They then use a Venn diagram to compare the inventory with a...
Curated OER
What Artifacts Reveal About The Past
Middle schoolers take a closer look at artifacts to learn about the people who used them. In this colonial America lesson, students examine photographs of everyday items used in colonial times and determine what the uses of the tools may...
Curated OER
Colonial Farm Life: Claude Moore Colonial Farm
Fourth graders, while visiting a colonial farm, are shown artifacts and participate in a craft instructional activity. They write about the experience at a later date.
Curated OER
American Indians, European Settlers, and Colonial Arkansas
Young scholars identify the interdependence among various ethnic groups in early Arkansas history. They illustrate timelines and visit historic sites. They make maps of the site and give class presentations.
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
King of Prussia Inn: Exploring Historic Places
Learners of any age examine the significance of historic sites, how we understand those sites, and what they mean in terms of history and the culture of the past. They look at maps, artifacts, and data taken from archaeological sites to...
Curated OER
Putting It All Together: Creating an artifact
Eleventh graders analyze a variety of images and documents, then create artifacts to archive, such as a newspaper, an album, or scrapbook from their writings, drawings, and projects. They present learned information to their peers
Curated OER
Primary and Secondary Documents for Colonial Times
Young scholars investigate the Colonial Era by completing a template on their computers. In this U.S. History lesson, students discuss the differences between primary and secondary sources and identify several different sources as one...
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
A Research Project: A Discussion of the Recreating and Populating of a Colonial Village
Primary source research, secondary source readings, and discussion provide the understanding necessary for students to create a colonial persona, and simulate a situation appropriate for this person, time, and place. While the lesson...
Curated OER
American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
Students explore daily life and its influences in the late 1700s for two families in different colonies- Delaware and Massachusetts by becoming historical detectives. After gathering information from artifacts to make inferences about...
Curated OER
Colonial America
Students discover the history of Colonial America by creating a class presentation. In this U.S. History lesson, students utilize the Internet to research one of 20 topics in which they will create a PowerPoint or other type of...
Curated OER
Populating Deerfield: A Workday for Researching the Colonial families
Eleventh graders explore who were the colonial families that populated Deerfield and what evidence can be gathered that reveals a part of their life stories to the researcher.
Curated OER
Jamestown
Seventh graders examine life at the Jamestown settlement. In this colonial America lesson, 7th graders visit the noted Web site to analyze artifacts from the settlement. Based on their findings, students write descriptive pieces about...
Curated OER
Everything Was Up to Date in 1628
Learners examine the life and lifestyles of New England colonists in the year 1628, and then investigate what life was like in their own area during the same time period. After watching segments from the PBS history series, "Colonial...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Exploring Boston's Big Dig
Students, in a high school class for autistic children, take a virtual tour of Boston's "Big Dig" and the artifacts discovered there. During weekly lab sessions, they discover the processes involved in artifact preservation. Using...
Annenberg Foundation
America's History in the Making: Classroom Applications One
Someone finds a time capsule 100 years from now, and it includes your family photo album. What would the photos tell that person about you and your place in history? Scholars investigate how artifacts tell stories. Using photos, maps,...
Curated OER
Making Faces: Understanding Artifacts Through Design Elements
Students examine and discuss drinking container artifacts from Jamestown. They view images of the artifacts, discuss their purposes, draw an original facial expression for a brown paper jug, and write a description of the facial expression.
Curated OER
Meet Hannah the Weaver
Students analyze primary and secondary sources to explore slavery and emancipation, and write letter or diary entry from point of view of slave Hannah Harris or plantation owner Robert Carter. Students then dramatize their creative...
Curated OER
What's in the Soil?
Second graders create stratified soil levels using pictures. In this earth science lesson plan, 2nd graders identify "artifacts" from 3 historic eras and divide them into 3 soil levels. Then they draw their own multi-level soil profile...
Curated OER
Random Strategies in Archaeology
Students critically evaluate cultures according to their artifacts. In this Random Strategies in Archaeology instructional activity, Students interpret evidence in order to better understand ancient societies. Students watch films that...
Curated OER
Historical Witness: Social Messaging
Research European expansionism and colonialism during the Age of Exploration. Study the Marquise de Miramon and discuss the objects from Japan. Research Europe's expansionism and colonialism during the Age of Exploration by working in...
Curated OER
Labor Needs in Colonial America
Young scholars examine the labor needs in colonial America. Using primary and secondary resources, they explore the major events and life in the United States during colonial times. They complete a chart listing the pros and cons of a...
Curated OER
An Exercise in Seriation Dating
Students study the different types of artifacts found that were made by the colonial people. In this archaeology lesson students take part in finding ceramic and charting their results.
Curated OER
Artifact Exploration
Students develop an understanding of the ways in which different people can use, relate to, and understand an object. Students look at each artifact collected in this lesson plan. For each artifact, the students describe how members of a po